BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
EVER DROP A PING PONG BALL?
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Ibet you have. Think of the sound that it makes as it bounces on the table. The rate continues to increase, slow to fast, until it's almost a vibrating whir at the end. This gives you an idea of the rhythm of the song of this week's bird.

What is 'the ping pong ball' bird?

But first allow me a digression. As you can imagine, when writing something you hope will be read by many, you develop a penchant for accuracy. So I'm thinking, "Is 'ping pong' one word or two? Perhaps it should be hyphenated?" A few keystrokes takes me to an Internet search engine and I type in "ping pong ball." The first entries quickly confirm that "ping pong" is two words but then the next entry below that is titled, "The Great Ping Pong Ball Experiment."

Now remember, this is a bird article so I'll be right back to the feathered part. I had to see what this experiment was about, and it was a doozy! A guy named Phil Shapiro designed it in 1995 and it involved dropping a ping pong ball into Lake Victoria at the head of the Nile River in Africa. It was estimated that it would take two months for the little ping pong ball to travel the 4,000 miles north to the Mediterranean Sea. It would have to negotiate at least nine huge waterfalls, plus keep from being snagged by reeds, trapped by eddies, or even eaten by fish or birds along the way.

The ball was to be dropped on November 1, 1999 and scientists all along the way would monitor the ball's progress. The writer envisioned the world would become entranced by this experiment and follow the ping pong ball's process weekly on their TV screens. As December 31 approached, everyone would be on tenterhooks waiting to see if the ping pong ball would arrive in Cairo. The idea was to compare the ping pong ball to our own planet, just a larger ball hurtling through space. It appears, however, that the great ping pong ball experiment never occurred. I'll put a reference in at the end of the column so you can see a clever Internet animation of how it might have happened.

But you know, this wasn't the 'great experiment' I had envisioned. I know - this is a bird column. Our bird is hovering just over the page and I promise I'll get right back to it.

I bet you remember this other great experiment and it is really cool. Imagine a basketball court that is covered with mousetraps. All these traps are set and there is a ping pong ball poised on each one. This was illustrated in a 2007 Superbowl ad and although many remember the ad, few remember what it was for. The narrator dropped a ping pong ball on the court, setting off a chain reaction that, in just a few seconds, resulted in a chaotic explosion of flailing mousetraps and ping pong balls going all over the court. This experiment was originally designed to demonstrate the principles of nuclear fission and produced an awesome image that really got the point across. Unfortunately for the advertiser the image was so stunning everyone forgot what the ad was actually selling.

Oh dear, we're getting on in the column and we still haven't discussed our ping pong ball bird. He's actually hopping around my head now looking for heavens knows what, but before I enlighten you more about him, I stumbled on one more 'great ping pong ball experiment' that is too good not to tell you.

Can you imagine 650,000 ping pong balls in one place? Think of the amount of space they'd take up! Of course science is involved and you know how scientists can get when they have an idea. We're in Japan from 1999 to 2001 and we are at their Olympic Miyanomori ski jump. I think you have the image. They sent these balls careening down the ski jump and had a huge amount of hi-tech monitoring gear to just see what they would do, where they would end up, what patterns they'd make. Great fun, but why would anyone do this? It had to have cost a lot of money.

This one actually had some really important findings having to do with snow avalanches, how to predict them, what paths they might take, how to build structures that might withstand them. Since avalanches kill 400 people every year, these little ping pong balls were doing important duty.

Oh shoot! I've used up all my space and you are still wondering about the 'ping pong ball bird.' I'll tell you what. We'll include its picture in this week's column and I bet some of you will guess it. And tune in next week when I promise, I'll stay on the ball!

And here is the reference to that wonderful slideshow on the 'Great Ping Pong Ball Experiment,'www.writersforliteracy.

org/pingpong.html. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259- 8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast. net.